Child Care Centres can Reopen on Friday

Tuesday, 9 June 2020 13:28

Child care centres will be allowed to open on Friday in Ontario under strict new guidelines. Also parents who are not ready to send their children at this time will not have to pay a fee to keep their spot.

ONTARIO - All child care centres in the Province of Ontario will be allowed to open on Friday June 12th.

Premier Doug Ford says they will have several restrictions in place.

"These restrictions will be just like the ones we have seen in the Emergency Child Care centres already open. There will be limits on the amount of children allowed in the centres at one time, there will be more cleaning and screening and child care centres will be able to open, once they meet these guidelines. I want parents to know, we will take every measure necessary to keep the kids and staff healthy."

Ford says summer day camps will also be allowed to open with some restrictions as part of stage 2.

Centres will be required to adopt specific rules, including:

- Cohorting; putting children and staff in groups of 10 or less day over day;
- COVID-19 response plan; all child care settings will be required to have a plan in place if a child, parent or staff member/provider is exposed to COVID-19;
- Screening; all staff and children must be screened prior to entry to the child care setting. Anyone feeling unwell must stay home;
- Daily attendance records; child care settings must keep daily records of all attendees in order to support contact tracing;
- Cleaning; child care settings must be thoroughly cleaned before opening and frequently thereafter;
- No visitors; only essential visitors are permitted entry into the child care setting;
- Implementing drop-off and pick-up protocols in a way that facilitates physical distancing.

As child care reopens across the province, if families are not offered access to their previous child care arrangement, operators will continue to be prevented from charging fees for these spaces. Education Minister Stephen Lecce also says you cannot lose your spot, if you decided not to send your kids to child care right now.

"We understand that some parents may decide to not utilize their existing child care space in the coming period. We will protect those parents to make sure that you will not lose your spot or be charged during this period of time."

The Province is also increasing fines for non-compliance and will be stepping up inspections. Home day cares will also have to follow these measures. Also the Medical Officer of Health for each region can decide to not allow daycares to open, if they deem it to be unsafe at this time.

You can listen to the Premiers comments below.